Saturday, November 22, 2008

The Great American Novel


I started reading Dennis Lehane many years ago when he started writing fast paced detective stories set in Boston. This series ran five books and finished up as a movie, Gone Baby Gone, last year. You could always tell Lehane wanted to do more and so he took the basic mystery story, a victim - cop - bad guy, and turned it on its head with the book Mystic River. This also was made into a movie a few years ago. Then he wrote my favorite, Shutter Island, which looks at the life shattering effects of personal crisis.

Now he has released a novel of epic scale, The Given Day. It traces the lives of two men, a newly married black man Luther, and a Irish Boston cop Danny, as their lives intertwine at the end of WW1. The writing is tight, the story is compelling, and as an added bonus you get to learn history at the same time (something I like). This was a great book, but if you want to start with something shorter (than 700 pages), go with Mystic River or Shutter Island.

3 comments:

meredith said...

Wow, I feel so on top of things because I actually already have this book sitting in my nightstand ready to start it tonight. It should be a great read-

TStevens said...

He is the big Boston writer - I am guessing that is what led you?

meredith said...

Actually it made a top 10 lists of great reads, either on msn or the Today, show I can't remember which. But, once I read the synopsis I had to get it. I'm glad to hear it's good.

BTW- i LOVE the picture. after seeing Twilight, your new picture is inspiring????????